Bradley Tries to Build on Power Base in North

Like the bay breeze that darts in, and then out, of this eclectic community along the north coast, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Bradley came through Humboldt County last week looking to boost the margin of support that voters here gave him four years ago.

From Humboldt, where Bradley edged GOP rival George Deukmejian by five points in 1982, the mayor ventured into tougher political territory, inland to Butte and Shasta counties--areas that went big for Deukmejian that year. But coming off two recent polls that have the mayor gaining on Deukmejian, it was a buoyant Bradley who in speech after speech sought to portray the governor as a “mean, uncaring” detached man, a theme designed to hold Deukmejian personally responsible for the depressed economy in the northern counties.

“We have a mean, uncaring, insensitive man serving as governor, who isn’t going to look out for the interest of people living in these small rural counties that desperately need help,” was the Bradley battle cry during his several stops in his two-day north county swing.

Natural Constituencies for Bradley

It is a charge that Bradley campaign manager Bob Thomson hopes can stick, particularly in counties like Humboldt, Shasta and Butte--fallen on hard times brought on by the decline of the timber industry, plagued by high unemployment, and sensitive to environmental concerns.

The three major Bradley stops--Eureka in Humboldt County, Redding in Shasta County and Chico in Butte County--all hold some natural liberal constituencies for the mayor.

Just north of Eureka is the coastal Humboldt State University, a draw for the laid-back environmentalist, and haven for the back-to-the-earth advocates of the early 1970s. Bradley is making a top pitch for the environmental vote this year and has received the endorsement of the Sierra Club, the state’s largest group of environmentalists.

Redding, with its north-central location, is home to many state and federal agencies and their heavily unionized government employees. Bradley has been a longtime favorite of unions, and in the 1982 campaign, labor was one of his biggest contributors.

The environmentalist support for Bradley is evident again in Chico, just about 90 miles north of Sacramento. It is another university town where residents take pride in their relatively unspoiled environment and abundance of almond (that’s eh-monds to anyone but city slickers) groves.

But in these same three northern areas, timber and agriculture reign, and farmers and timber companies are leery of regulation like the Bradley-backed Proposition 65, an anti-toxics measure that many farmers believe would severely impede use of valued pesticides. And Shasta and Butte, even Democratic partisans admit, are counties probably more susceptible than most to what one delicately called the “racial factor” in the gubernatorial campaign.

The contrasts point up Bradley’s problems in making much headway in these areas. Eureka, for example, while influenced by the generally liberal university nearby, is still a lumber industry town dominated by conservatives. And the do-your-own-thing hippie influence has a hard-nosed flip side. Case in point: A bar in the neighboring town of Ferndale boasts a large sign at the door, just in case you thought you had wandered into one of those old psychedelic hangouts. It reads: “We drink hippie blood.”

Tenuous Balance

So for Bradley, California’s north country is an area where his support is tenuously balanced. When Bradley and his campaign aides arrived at the Eureka airport, the greetings barely had been uttered when Supervisor Wesley Chesbro, a liberal member of the Board of Supervisors, asked for quick reassurance.

“The mayor was against the Peripheral Canal, wasn’t he?” He got a yes, then a no. Chesbro looked uneasy when he heard that both Deukmejian and Bradley in 1982 had supported the 43-mile project that would have diverted water from the Sacramento River to Southern California.

But Bradley is pushing a far different, more conservation-oriented water plan now, and that’s the one that got mentioned when Chesbro gave an enthusiastic introduction to Bradley at luncheon: “He’s fighting the Peripheral Canal, he’s talking about water conservation in the south.” Chesbro told the crowd.

“My friends,” Bradley said, nodding acknowledgement for a standing ovation from about 100 people, “this area has been good to me.” In 1982 Humboldt, like other coastal counties, carried for Bradley by about 2,000 votes.

Veto of Funds

Bradley launched into an attack on Deukmejian’s veto of $283 million from the state budget. (Deukmejian on Friday signed legislation to partially restore the money until January). Democrats want Deukmejian to fully restore the money by taking surplus dollars from the $1-billion reserve fund. Deukmejian has refused, saying that the $1-billion reserve is necessary for unforeseen emergencies such as flood and fire disasters. Instead, he wants to use funds from the Public Employees Retirement System. The governor’s aides have said that spending “surplus” funds from the system would not affect retirement benefits.

Glazed Stares

The controversy, which was hit repeatedly by Bradley on his trip, was a topic usually met with glazed stares even from heavily partisan audiences.

What did work were appeals on a more human level. Meeting with a group of American Indians at Trinidad Rancheria, about 15 miles north of Eureka, Bradley stood at a podium framed by tall pines.

“We are going to get to Sacramento and we’re going to have compassion, we are truly one family. When one group or individual is treated unfairly, ignored, spat upon, denied fairness, and justice, that represents disunity in the family that cannot be.

”. . . I’ve come because I want you to know that--though this area might seem remote from the heart of the state, may not have vast amounts of voters or big interests to make contributions--it is important to this campaign. . . . We want to be inclusive, not exclusive--a governor that cares about everybody.” After applause he was given an Indian necktie, made of glass beads, sterling silver and abalone.

The next stop, by eight-passenger chartered plane, is Redding. The once big mining and timber town is now a tourist attraction for campers and trout and bass anglers who visit Shasta Lake 15 miles north. The city is home to a cluster of state and federal agencies and also has attracted many retirees trading big-city life for a more tranquil and less expensive existence.

Bradley Signs

Set at the bank of the Sacramento River, Riverfront Park last week was plastered with Tom Bradley signs. The speech was one he often uses before heavily union crowds and one tailored for a county with a nearly 11% unemployment rate, four points above the statewide average.

“I’m determined to bring to this community economic development for jobs. . . . To have to take $6-$7 hour is a crying shame. . . . The governor seeks to take away PERS (Public Employees Retirement System) funds.”

Attending the rally were Larry and Elsie Branscom. He is a construction worker and union member nearing retirement and she is a housewife. Both have taken jobs as distributors of vitamins, for extra income.

“It’s a bad time for unions,” Branscom said. “It’s a bad time around here, period, economically. Half of the downtown mall is empty, lumber mills are closing, the Martin Luther King center for kids is supposed to be closing--no more money for that.”

Asked if he believed the governor had anything to do with the economic problems, Branscom replied, “Well, I don’t know quite who to blame. . . . I guess I don’t think it’s any one person. But I think maybe this fellow could do a better job.”

Bradley’s next stop was at California State University, Chico, about 90 miles north of Sacramento in Butte County. The mayor received an enthusiastic response from about 200 students on a Saturday morning.

“Just being labeled the more liberal candidate can carry a negative image” in heavily agricultural and generally conservative Butte County, said Shelton Enochs, a liberal Chico councilman and chairman of the Butte County Democratic Central Committee. But Chico, with its university campus, is more liberal than the county as a whole, and Enochs said Bradley should do well in the city.

Political Battle

Liberals lost power on the seven-member Chico City Council last year after an all-out battle with conservatives. The wounds left from the political fight have since healed, and Chico is a friendly town, with mulberry- and sycamore-lined streets, “a slower-paced, no high-blood-pressure town,” Enochs said.

But it also is the area where seven years ago three whites admitted tracking down and killing a black deaf man after they said they could not find any deer or cows to shoot. The episode brought horror and shame to the Chico community, Enochs said. “But it’s not fair to judge a community by that one senseless thing. But the racial factor is there, like it is in other places.”

A Northern California Democratic official was blunt: “The race factor is very real in the inland counties, in the agriculture areas. People just vote for people that they’re more comfortable with, who they are more familiar with, and that means Tom Bradley as a black is at an automatic disadvantage, no matter what he does. Being from what they see as the crime-ridden, smog-filled Los Angeles, of course, doesn’t help either. That’s all a given and all Bradley’s people want to do at this point is hold their ground and not lose any more votes.”

Avoids Arguments

While campaigning, Bradley played it safe, trying not to provoke argument, but in some cases not provoking overwhelming enthusiasm either. When asked by a Chico reporter what he would do for rural counties, Bradley talked about things he would have done differently than Deukmejian has: “I would not have vetoed” from the state budget money Deukmejian cut that affected rural counties.

Bradley campaign manager Thomson said the primary purpose of the trip was to play to Bradley’s strength--Humboldt County. But Thomson added that, with the economy showing signs of weakness and the high number of retirees living in these north counties, “I think we can show that Deukmejian’s support is a mile wide and an inch deep.”